County's school superintendents' pay above average

The average Oakland County school superintendents’ base salary is $11,000 higher than the national average and $43,000 higher than the state average.

In the United States, the salary for the top school job averages $147,000 annually, in Michigan, $115,000, and in Oakland County, $158,900.

However, quoting only a salary is misleading. The people at the helm of school districts make as much as $349,000 statewide and $277,000 in Oakland County when benefits such as annuities, retirement contributions, health insurance, car allowances and other items are added.

For example, in Oakland County, a superintendent might earn a salary of around $140,000 to $150,000, but may actually be compensated by more than $200,000 from school district funds, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which posts such information about school superintendents as well as a wealth of other school district data that is open to the public.

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Nationwide, salaries of the school district CEOs vary greatly. According to Salary.com, one quarter of the country’s school superintendents earn a base salary of up to $93,538; the second quarter earns up to $117,500; the third quarter up to $173,613 and the fourth quarter, $200,700.

The highest base salary for an Oakland County school district superintendent in 2012 was $205,000 and that was in Troy schools, where Barbara Fowler is superintendent of one of the largest and wealthiest districts in the county, with more than 12,000 students.

However, when all benefits are added, the highest total compensation of $277,900 is paid Farmington Public School District where Susan Zurvalec is superintendent of the near-12,000-student district.

Like many superintendents, Zurvalec objects to the way total compensation is computed by Mackinac Center.

“Any payments toward health insurance benefits and retirement payroll costs, mandated by the state, are not received as compensation,” Zurvalec said. “The Mackinac Center’s continued practice of including retirement payroll costs and insurance as compensation received by superintendents is misleading the public.”

Without the state-required contributions, Zurvalec said her total compensation would be $212,275.

New Pontiac Superintendent Kelley Williams’ salary and compensation are not yet posted on the Mackinac Center’s data base, and she would provide Digital First Media with only her salary of $135,000 and her car allowance of $500 for a total of $141,000 total annual compensation. That does not include the cost for the district’s contribution to her health insurance or retirement compensation.

Some other county superintendents have salaries in the same range and their districts contribute anywhere from $4,800 to $36,000 toward their retirement plus a portion of the health care.

Besides Troy and Farmington, the other three among the five districts with the top paid county superintendents are Walled Lake, Bloomfield Hills, and South Lyon.

However, Oakland County’s highest paid superintendents are not the most financially rewarded in the state. The Kalamazoo school superintendent’s compensation is $349,000; Utica, $300,800, and Rockford, $290,000, making them the highest paid in Michigan, according to the Mackinac data base.

Among the state’s regional school superintendents, Oakland Schools Superintendent Vickie Markavitch, who operates the intermediate district that provides services to all 28 school districts, ranks fifth with a total compensation of $246,183. She said pay for all Oakland ISD employees, including herself, had been reduced over the previous four years before a 2 percent increase was approved by the board. The Macomb ISD superintendent following close behind in sixth place with $242,000.

The highest paid is the Genesee ISD superintendent, at $282,000. Total superintendent compensation is based on enrollment, the district’s financial health, experience and education level and what a board of education is willing to pay for their best candidate. However, even the highest paid Michigan and Oakland County superintendents can’t compete with the CEOs of major companies in a study done by the AFL-CIO in 2012.

While the average total compensation for a chief executive came out to be $155,000, the CEOs of the S&P 500 Index companies received, on average, $12.3 million in total compensation for 2012, according to the study.

“Overall, CEOs of S&P 500 Index companies made 354 times the average wages of rank-and-file workers in 2012,” which the study said averaged just $34,645.

The average CEO base pay at S&P 500 Index Companies started off at $1.1 million. Added to that (with numbers rounded off) was a bonus averaging $273,000, stock awards averaging $4.5 million, option awards of $2.2 million, incentive plan compensation of $2.26 million, pension and deferred compensation of $1.51 million, and other compensation of $457,000 to bring the average to the more than $12 million.

Some contracts of Oakland County superintendents have changed since the information was provided to Mackinac Center, which periodically updates its data base and will include the new contracts.

Some districts pointed out differences in the data reported. They include: Brandon no longer paid retirement, and insurance should be $7,312, not $12,591; Clarkston should reflect a $2,000 decrease in salary and an 11 percent contribution toward health care; Lake Orion reported compensation is less than reported; Rochester reported total compensation increased to $258,000 with a new superintendent; Waterford reported new superintendent salary is $181,600; pension is $40,429, other is $10,400, and insurance is $16,822; Walled Lake said vacation days are 27, not 32; and West Bloomfield reported 25 vacation days.